RICHMOND, Va. -- According to winning car owner Richard Childress, fans got their money's worth Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway -- at least at the end of the Crown Royal 400.

But you would have had a hard time convincing the legions of Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans of that -- especially the throngs whom second-place finisher Kyle Busch said were giving him a one-finger salute for about the last 10 laps of the race.

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"Well, for some reason, they are awfully confused," Busch said of the signals. "I was in second place, still. So I don't know whether that's too many Dale Jr. Budweisers or they are AMPed-up or what."

All kidding aside, hard racing brought the leader Earnhardt together with his aggressor Busch entering RIR's Turn 3 with two laps remaining in the race's original 400-lap distance.

The result was a crashed No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for Earnhardt, which he still managed to drive to 15th on the lead lap; interrupted momentum for Busch's No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, which relegated it to second; and a snake-like move from third to Victory Lane for Childress' driver, Clint Bowyer, who scooted through and scored his second career victory in the No. 07 Chevrolet (read more).

"It's just great racing, and Kyle and these guys, what they are doing is putting on a show," Childress said. "People shouldn't be upset, because that's what they pay their money for, is to see a great race."

For more than 380 laps, they'd seen what amounted to a comprehensive spanking by local favorite Denny Hamlin, from the Richmond suburb of Chesterfield. But when Hamlin suffered a flat tire and brought out the race's 10th, and next-to-last caution, everything changed (read more).

Earnhardt, who had spent most of his evening in the top five, took advantage to take the lead, but after the penultimate restart, he and Busch were only able to race for two-and-a-half laps before they got together.

"Yeah, they were putting on a show for a while -- I thought so, anyway," Bowyer said. "They were racing hard. That's what racing at Richmond is all about in my opinion.

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"I told the cops, I don't know why they were escorting me in [to the media center]. I told them, they better get on and escort Kyle Busch out of [the track]."

After he'd emerged from his tattered car, Earnhardt, unlike Bowyer, wasn't laughing. Rather, he looked like he was carrying the weight of every one of the 72 consecutive losing races he's run since his last victory, which ironically came at this event in 2006.

Earnhardt took a measured view of the incident, and wasn't judgmental, at least about its cause.

"Whether it is fair or not, [Busch] is going to need some security," Earnhardt said in a live FOX Sports interview immediately after exiting his car back in the Sprint Cup garage. "I haven't seen the replay. Tony [Eury] Jr. [Earnhardt's crew chief] said it looked like Kyle got loose underneath me. That happens."

Earnhardt had good reason to be both philosophical and disappointed. Before the night's dominant driver, Hamlin, suffered a flat right-front tire, neither Earnhardt nor anyone else had a snowball's chance to win.

But even if Hamlin hadn't faltered, Earnhardt stood a strong shot to score his eighth top-10 finish in 10 races this season. Even in failing to do that, Earnhardt remained in third in the standings, 104 points behind Busch.

"The worst part about it is that I have been priding myself on running good all year and I was in position for a win," Earnhardt said. "I ran hard and got wrecked. I had a top-three car and should have finished in the top three.

"So, I was going for the win [and] just ended up on the hook. [I'm] just disappointed."

Busch might have finished second and taken the Sprint Cup points lead in the process, unofficially by 18 points over former leader Jeff Burton, but he was by no means cocky over the method to his finish.

"You know, that was just a product of good, hard racing," Busch said. "I apologize that that happened, and I hated that it did. Fortunately [Earnhardt] didn't get hurt, so he was able to continue. He'll see another day of racing.

“

It's just unfortunate circumstances for him because he didn't get a win, and for me because now I've got to put up with it.

”

KYLE BUSCH

"To say that I took a win away from him, you know, it's hard to say. And if I wanted to do it deliberately, I would have waited for the last lap where I probably could have still won the race.

"We just didn't give each other enough room getting into Turn 3. I didn't feel like I slipped, but I mean, we just kind of banged simultaneously, and then that's when I got loose and got corrected and he was gone."

Earnhardt acknowledged that was the case.

"He gave me room off the outside of [Turn] 2, so I wouldn't say that was intentional going into 3, because if he had wanted to, he could have just thrown me in the fence off 2," Earnhardt said of Busch. "We had been racing each other earlier and had no problems. I have done that before. That is what happens if he got loose underneath me.

"He almost cleared me off of 2, but I got back side-by-side going into 3. I tried to run him pretty tight running up top, and he just ran into me or got loose or whatever."

In the past -- and even as recently as Friday night after the Nationwide Series' Lipton TEA 250, where he stalked to Steve Wallace's car and confronted him while Wallace sat inside it after the two had made contact on the last lap (watch video) -- Busch has been contentious post-race.

That was not the case Saturday -- and he needed to be neither contentious nor apologetic.

"For me, there's nothing you can say, absolutely nothing," Busch said. "If I apologize up and down, even though it may or may not be my fault -- it would not make a difference. Dale got wrecked; he should have had a win tonight -- quote, unquote.

"But I'll say it again. It's just unfortunate circumstances for him because he didn't get a win, and for me because now I've got to put up with it."

This time, Busch should be praised for doing what he's paid to do -- trying to win a race -- and what his responsibility should be -- trying to put on a show.

Junior's day will come -- and with the way things have gone so far this season, Busch no doubt will be involved when it does.